Roundabout centerpiece?

Seems like something attractive should go in the center of the roundabout? Here's a poll of choices that come to mind

a) Landscaping - flowers/plants
b) Gary Kahle sculpture (He does the shiny metal pieces you see around town)
c) Bull dog statue
d) Fountain
e) Other

Round we go ....

The new, big traffic circle at Kansas Avenue and Bypass opens tomorrow. I personally like roundabouts, but you here a lot of criticism and uncertainty about them. Basically, everybody goes slow enough, kind of like a parking to avoid wrecks or make wrecks minor fender benders.

Property taxes

This story in the Eagle showed the Sedgwick County property owners don't have that high of a tax burden compare to the rest of the country, and even the rest of Kansas. You hear a lot of complaints about property taxes in Kansas, and Cowley County, especially as it compare to Oklahoma. Unfortunately this study did not include counties with populations under 60,000. It did show that Kansas ranks 26 in terms of property tax burden, which is right in the middle, which doesn't sound too out of line.

Public Plan Debate

Liberal Democrats are pushing for the public insurance plan. This seems a bit fruittless considering there aren't enough Democrats, much less Republican, Senators to vote for it. Hopefully the debate will highlight the problem of costs, which are burying small businesses and workers.

Health care watch

Another year, another 20 percent hike in health insurance cost. Our newspaper company's insurance rep. says they want 20 percent increases for the same coverage. A public health insurance option, similar to Medicare, to compete with these monopolies sounds pretty good right now.

More smoking ban benefits

Public smoking bans apparently reduce heart attacks, study shows. The reasons to ban smoking keep mounting. It's only a matter of time before the state bans public smoking. It would be nice, though, if Ark City were ahead of the curve...eh em, City Commission.

Bill heart Obama

Conservative bloviator Bill O'Reilly, like most Americans (according to scientific opinion polls) would like to see a public insurance option.